Expression Design Beta 2 Ships

As Microsoft pushes to ready a suite of new design tools for offer under the Expression Studio brand, the company announced late last week that it is shipping the second beta release of the third of those tools.

Expression Design is targeted at graphic design professionals working on elements for both Web and desktop application user interfaces.

The company just announced it is shipping the "release candidate" or RC of the second tool in the Expression Studio set -- Expression Blend. Blend is designed to enable developers and designers to build Windows user interfaces using the .NET Framework 3.0's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

Design the third of three new Expression design tools that Microsoft has under work as part of its forthcoming Expression Studio. The company began shipping Expression Web, a tool for Web designers, in December.

Microsoft says Blend and Design, as well as another tool named Expression Media, which is designed to provide media asset management capabilities, will ship in the second quarter.

RC is the final step after beta test before a Microsoft product is "released to manufacturing" or RTM. A release candidate is just that -- it is released to testers and if no one finds any "show stopper" bugs, it is RTMed.